“Forgiveness does not excuse their behavior.
Forgiveness prevents their behavior
from destroying your heart.”
Category Archives: Spirit
human knowledge or Divine Knowledge?
Paris in the
the spring
Most of us will not realize until it has been pointed out, that the word “the” occurs twice in the above phrase: “Paris in the the spring”. When we look again and realize there are two instances of “the”, we wonder how we could have possibly ever missed seeing both. Now, it is all we can see when we gaze back at the line – “…the the…” What could we have been thinking? It seems so obvious.
Now comes the challenge of seeing Divine Knowledge as something quite apart from worldly, human knowledge. Just as the lowercase “g” “god” is often applied to many mysterious or supernatural beings that impress and confound the human mind, and capital “G” “God” indicates a Oneness that has no beginning or end; the lowercase “k” knowledge is a synonym for facts or information, whereas the capital “K” Knowledge is a synonym for “Knowledge of God”. From A Course In Miracles, chapter 18:
What could God give but Knowledge of Himself?
Knowledge is a simple two-syllable word used quite frequently in A Course In Miracles (ACIM), yet its true significance can be elusive until and unless it is pointed out. We ask, what does the Course mean when it refers to the word “knowledge”? Does “knowledge” in the Course mean “facts and information” or does it mean “a means to directly experience the Eternal Oneness”?
The word “knowledge” is often underestimated by the reader or “the ego”, because the mortal human mind has a tendency to assume that most information or “knowledge” can fit within the human mind. The mind that has been trained to think of itself as the ultimate authority cannot imagine there is anything beyond mental comprehension. Mortal mind does not question its own authority and doubts there even exists a higher Authority. If mortal mind believes something, then it defines its belief as fact. Yet the realm of the mortal human mind is lowercase “k” knowledge, not uppercase “K” Knowledge. Divine Knowledge is the realm of Divine Mind and the finite mind comprehends it not. It is impossible to fit the ocean in a teacup.
Could the knowledge ACIM speaks of be the same Knowledge referred to in other scriptures? It appears to be. For instance, from the bible…
They will neither harm nor destroy
in all my holy mountain,
for the earth shall be full
of the Knowledge of the Lord,
as the waters cover the sea. – Isaiah 11
Then shalt thou understand the fear [awe] of the Lord,
and find the Knowledge of God. – Proverbs 2
Be still and Know that I am God. – Psalm 46
The Kingdom of God is within you. – Luke 17
What could God give but Knowledge of Himself? – ACIM 18
In most instances, when the course refers to knowledge, it means Knowledge of God, Knowledge of the highest degree, the capital “K” Knowledge. The capital “K” Knowledge refers to “know-how” – how to access a direct experience of the power we call God, God as Light, God as Love, God as Life Everlasting, something far beyond the human mind, an experience the human mind cannot reach, imagine, remember, recreate nor speak of. Awe tends to leave one speechless.
How to tell the difference between knowledge and Knowledge, when reading the course? I suggest substituting “Knowledge of God” for the word “knowledge”. In most cases, “Knowledge of God” will fit perfectly. If you simply search ACIM for the word “knowledge”, you will find that statement after statement tie together to give you an increasingly clear picture of what Knowledge means and has meant throughout the millennia – and why it is vitally important for the word to be read with a capital “K”. On page 92 of the document known as the “Urtext” is a tiny line that says it all…
The purpose of this course is
to prepare you for Knowledge.
Knowledge is important enough to Jesus for him to dictate over a thousand pages which comprise the course. It is important to us because it fulfills the promise of Lesson 101…
God’s will for me is perfect happiness.
Does “perfect happiness” merely mean an upgrade to our mundane human lives? A better job, a better house, a better spouse? Or could “perfect happiness” mean that God’s will for us is to have ready access – through Knowledge – to heaven, so that at any moment, here and now, no matter who is with us or not with us, no matter what is going on or not going on, no matter where we are or where we are not, we can choose to feel the Divine Love within us – at will, here and now? Imagine having that ability at your fingertips, available to you on a daily basis. There is something huge within you that can lift you out of all mundanity:
Beyond the body, beyond the sun and stars, past everything you see and yet somehow familiar, is an arc of golden light that stretches, as you look, into a great and shining circle. And all the circle fills with light before your eyes. The edges of the circle disappear, and what is in it no longer is contained at all. The light expands and covers everything, extending to infinity, forever shining, and with no break or limit anywhere. Within it, everything is joined in perfect continuity. Nor is it possible to imagine that anything could be outside. For there is nowhere that this light is not. – ACIM Ch 21.I
This is the very Light John referred to when he wrote, “God is Light.”
The either/or nature of the course is due to the distinction between knowledge and Knowledge. We are either in the world, a fleeting dream comprised of the perishable – of people, places and things that come and go – or we are in this beautiful, exquisite, immaculate, perfection; endless living, loving, flowing, glowing Light that is God. God is light. The infinite and finite, light and dark, love and fear, peace and chaos, Spirit and ego, are mutually exclusive pairs. One is absolute – cannot be threatened. The other is temporary, a “reality show”. When you learn to turn off your mental chatter for a moment and be still, the Forever arises. Knowledge provides the know-how for taking a giant step outside the mortal mind on a daily basis.
We are fortunate indeed to have in ACIM a handbook that prepares us for Knowledge of God, of Reality. We all have learned that the happiness of this world can turn on a dime, while the perfect happiness that is God’s Will for us, is always there, constant, true, exceeding any and all human imagination and expectation.
Why is it important to discern between knowledge and Knowledge in our reading of ACIM and other scriptures? We have been taught that heaven is where you go after you die, so we need to learn that heaven is not “then and there”, or as Jesus said, ” but is indeed “here and now”, available to us – during this lifetime – that we don’t need to wait until we “die”. From ACIM Workbook Lesson 188:
The peace of God is shining in me now.
Why wait for Heaven? Those who seek the light are merely covering their eyes. The light is in them now. Enlightenment is but a recognition, not a change at all. Light is not of the world, yet you who bear the light in you are alien here as well. The light came with you from your native home, and stayed with you because it is your own. It is the only thing you bring with you from Him Who is your Source. It shines in you because it lights your home, and leads you back to where it came from and you are at home.
This light can not be lost. Why wait to find it in the future, or believe it has been lost already, or was never there? It can so easily be looked upon that arguments which prove it is not there become ridiculous. Who can deny the presence of what he beholds in him? It is not difficult to look within, for there all vision starts…
As spiritual beings having a temporary human experience, we need to have the means to visit our heavenly home. Otherwise our time here seems long and lonely indeed. We forget who and what we are and we forget that we are never alone. But fact is, we are not apart from our Source, nor can we be apart from it. Our Source, God, the Life Force, is the Reality that all things are made from – physical, mental, emotional and spiritual. It breathes us. The Kingdom of Heaven is indeed within us – is us – and we just forgot where we misplaced the key that opens the door. When we are shown how, we are able to open the door within us, during the day, whenever we wish, for heaven is within you, not outside, somewhere else:
And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you. – Luke 17:20-21
Some still teach that you might go to heaven after you die if you do things just right while you are here – and if you don’t do things just right, then God, which is Love, will send you to hell. Many toe the line, hoping to please God and go to heaven; others have despaired and given up, thinking they could never do things perfectly. But is it true? Are “good works” the ticket to heaven? Or is a sincere desire to know the Truth – beyond the truth – the key to the Kingdom? Can someone help us unlearn what we have learned that stands in our way and to learn how to return to the Beauty within? From the ACIM “Urtext”, page 365:
The Kingdom of Heaven is the dwelling place of the Son of God, who left not his Father, and dwells not apart from Him. Heaven is not a place nor a condition. It is merely an awareness of perfect Oneness, and the knowledge that there is nothing else. Nothing outside this Oneness, and nothing else within.
Perhaps you remember that once upon a time there was a fox who was unable to reach the grapes that grew high on the vine, so he had never tasted them, yet he stated authoritatively that the grapes were sour. A camel came along and ate some of the sweet, sweet grapes, for he was tall enough to easily reach them and he kindly allowed the fox to climb on his back up to the grapes, so he could enjoy them for himself. Once the fox tasted the grapes, he gave up his sad song. “Belief is as good as it gets,” say some. “Believe and you will be saved.” Others say, “You can know and I can show you.” Do not settle for less than Knowledge of God.
About five percent of the people in the world have had a near-death experience (NDE) in which they tasted Heaven. Some say they wanted to stay there forever and were sorely disappointed when they were told they still had unfinished business here on Earth. When they begged to stay, they were told to come back and to “receive Knowledge”. Most heard the word knowledge with a lowercase “k”, so they came back and enrolled in college. But nothing you can learn in college could possibly compare to what they experienced in their NDE. They didn’t realize there is such a thing as an uppercase “K” Knowledge that allows them to see the pure white Light they saw, to feel the unconditional Love and Peace they felt, on a daily basis – to experience here and now, in the body, what they experienced in their NDE. And so, without Divine Knowledge, this capital “K” Knowledge, they still long for what they felt when they visited Heaven. They, of all people. are acutely aware of the difference between this world and Heaven. The good news is, they too can taste the grapes. They can have it all. They can have worldly knowledge and access to Divine Knowledge and live in this world with the Love they love and that loves them.
And Knowledge is not just for those who have had a near-death experience. All our hearts constantly work to turn us back toward the Light. I remember feeling so much pain in my heart when I was a tiny child, feeling so lonely for the quality of Love that I had come from but which was not accessible to me here on Earth. I could not understand where it had gone. I felt I had been rudely dumped and deserted. Loneliness was my primary emotion throughout my childhood, teens and early adult years until I received Knowledge. I was not a student of the course for another fifteen years, but I am endlessly grateful that the course prepares me on a daily basis to practice Knowledge. At times I wonder how people can peacefully grasp the core message of the course before receiving Knowledge. One woman I met said she has torn up, burned and thrown in the river, several copies of the course – yet she keeps returning to it again and again. I too might have felt her frustration if I had begun studying ACIM before I received Knowledge.
The Course does indeed prepare its students for Knowledge. Several students in my study groups have received Knowledge, thanks to the course. It prepares us to admit to ourselves, through our entrenched denial, that we want to live with Knowledge of God, not to wait until we “die”. We want to feel His embrace and see His Light now. ACIM inspires us to pursue Knowledge and then, once we have sought, found, asked and received Knowledge, to practice it, for the course makes it clear that we cannot take our baggage – fear, anger, sorrow, etc – with us into that Beauty. Oil and water do not mix. And the course helps us to release fear in all its forms, to remove the blocks to our awareness of Love’s Presence.
As long as anyone has a sincere desire to know the Truth, the Holy Spirit will guide them kindly to the grapes, the keys to the Kingdom, the Knowledge. When we begin to practice Knowledge, we find that everything in life has led us to where we are now and we are grateful for all that has occurred. In ancient times, they say aspirants had to climb mountains and swim oceans to receive Knowledge. In these very challenging times, in a world full of distractions, our job, (should we choose to accept it), is to clear away the barriers in our minds – pride, fear, judgment, etc. This is no small task. The course helps.
The value of practicing Knowledge on a regular basis is that we begin to release our false identities – as bodies, feelings, thoughts, personalities and stories – and instead begin to identify more with our true Identity as Light, Love, Spirit, Wisdom and Joy. Unconditional love, non-judgment, compassion and appreciation become our way in the world and the world reflects our new way of thinking and being, back to us.
This article is to make clear that Knowledge is beyond knowledge, Truth is beyond truth, the Word is beyond words, that the Name is beyond names, Love is beyond love, Light is beyond light, and so on. From ACIM Ch 18.IX:
This course will lead to Knowledge, but Knowledge itself is still beyond the scope of our curriculum… Nor is there any need for us to try to speak of what must forever lie beyond words. We need remember only that whoever attains the real world, beyond which learning cannot go, will go beyond it, but in a different way. Where learning ends, there God begins, for learning ends before Him Who is complete where He begins, and where there is no end…
The readiness for Knowledge still must be attained… Love is not learned. Its meaning lies in Itself. And learning ends when you have recognized all it is not. That is the interference; that is what needs to be undone. Love is not learned, because there never was a time in which you knew it not. Learning is useless in the Presence of your Creator, Whose acknowledgment of you, and yours of Him, so far transcends all learning, that everything you learned is meaningless, replaced forever by the Knowledge of Love and its one meaning.
~~~~~
Patricia Robinett is a student of A Course in Miracles and of Knowledge. She has facilitated ACIM study groups for over 25 years. Her website is www.ACIMessentials.com and contains videos of the workbook lessons – and more. Patricia is the author of Knowledge, The Essence of World Scriptures, which is a compilation of quotes extolling the beauty of Knowledge, a book designed to help trigger our memory of what was, is and always will be within us, as well as inspire us to aspire to receive the Knowledge that is our birthright.
Zen story – “No amount of thinking…”
A student watched as his master sat on the ground and rubbed a large stone with a smaller one.
Curious, he finally asked, “Master why are you rubbing that large stone so vigorously with the smaller one?”
The master looked up and said, “I am polishing the large stone with the smaller one too make a mirror.”
“But master,” the student replied, “no amount of rubbing those stones together will make a mirror.”
The master smiled and said, “Quite right! … Just as no amount of thinking will ever make you see your true nature.”
Demonstration by Mary Baker Eddy
Something that I find goes quite well with A Course in Miracles, is Mary Baker Eddy’s work. The Christian Science Church is based on her text, Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures. The two books fit together and each helps make sense of the other.
In Christian Science Reading Rooms all over the world, you can find thousands of testimonials validating the type of healing work in Christian Science – and the potential of ACIM.
I highly recommend a visit to a reading room for every serious ACIM student.
This is a sweet little essay Mrs. Eddy wrote explaining the secret of healing…
Search online for Demonstration by Mary Baker Eddy. We can learn much about healing from people who have studied the subject all their lives.
Spirit is the healer
Some say Spirit is the healer and they are right. But what does that really mean? Is the Spirit that heals, a ghost? An amorphous being, a specter, phantom, apparition or halloween spook? No, the spirit that heals is far more than that — and far more readily available to all.
The word spirit comes from the Latin noun spiritus, which means breath and from the Latin verb spirare, which means to breathe.
Spirit is the breath that breathes you. Spirit is the life that lives you. Spirit is the motion that moves you. Spirit is always there — filling you from within you holding you all around, about. There is nowhere spirit is not. You are never alone. Every breath you take is a gift of love.
God breathed life into Adam and God breathes life into you every moment of every day and all night through. Breathing freely, fully and deeply is your natural condition.
When you are afraid, your breath becomes quick and shallow — you hold your breath. In essence, when you are afraid and hold your breath, you are saying No! to life. At that point, tensions get stuck in your body. When you recall the point at which you held your breath, you breathe again – the dis-ease, fear and tension are released. When breath is restored, ease is restored; Love returns to fill the place where the fear had been lodged. You are free.
And that is why they say,
Spirit is the healer.
Birth & Rebirth – Why Are We Here, Now?
We humans are usually born head first and even though we are most often caught in a pair of loving hands before our heads strike the ground, we are routinely stricken with a deep case of amnesia as soon as we reach the planet — or shortly thereafter. There is usually enough of a memory of our Source to keep us going for a few years, despite the delights of barbaric hospital births, primitive toys and condescending baby talk.
The adults who came before us forgot who they are too, so they cannot know who we are. Quickly we forget that we were made in the image and likeness of God and have traded infinite love for finite loneliness. It is rare for anyone on planet Earth to remember for very long. The ones who remember
We dive into a swirl of people, places and things, are thrown around like a Spanish dancer — this way and that — until we get to that place where we want to stop the world and get off. We have tired of feeling less than love and aliveness. We become determined to remember who we are, to sort out which voice inside our head is our friend or foe. We promise ourselves to turn our lives around to ground zero and reclaim our original identity, our dignity, and compassionate nature. After all, “God is love”, and it is our job to “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect.”
It is my humble opinion that “Be ye perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect” might have been more accurately stated, “Ye are perfect as your Father in heaven is perfect”, for the same image and likeness that we were created in was, is and will always be, perfect. Pure light. Pure love. Spirit. That is what we are. It’s a true adventure to reclaim our heritage. The secret to our healing from our mistaken human identity is to rediscover, remember our original Identity.
Remembering is the first step, but intellectual understanding and one or two flashes of clarity are not enough to sustain us for long. Frequent reminding is essential because we tend to forget to remember. A lifetime of identifying with who and what we aren’t is not usually overcome in one instant, but practicing, bringing the instants closer together; our thoughts, behaviors and communications change for the better.
That is why I recommend knocking off big chunks of false identification with a few great counseling sessions or deeply transformative workshops, attending ongoing groups affiliated with your favorite church or being part of a Twelve-Step Program (AA, CoDA, ACoA).
Between times of becoming aware of, working with and releasing the big chunks of old fear and forgetfulness, we recommend staying in touch daily with our true nature by practicing feeling the feelings we love to feel. That’s what real healing is all about… releasing old fears (false evidence appearing real) and becoming accustomed to feeling peaceful, happy and content.
Here you will hopefully find helpful information, practical tools and inspiration regarding the nuts and bolts of real healing that will help you stay in touch with the love in your heart. There is something called Knowledge… Knowledge of the Soul or Knowledge of God, which helps us remember Who and What We Truly Are. Some find it to be the best gift of all, ever.
For healing: hypnosis or de-hypnosis?
“All healing is essentially the release from fear.”
– ACIM
Hypnosis can be a powerful tool for good — or for ill. Hypnotic suggestions program your mind, which is essentially the hard drive of your body computer. We have all been programmed to believe what we believe, to see ourselves and the world as we do.
Some love the color red; others hate it. Some love dogs; others fear them. When we came from the womb, we were simply open and receptive; fear has hypnotized us all and imprinted us all with different programs.
Fear is an especially effective means of hypnosis. A trained hypnotist might suddenly push you off balance or clap loudly next to your head… for he has learned that fear puts the subject into a trance of shock. Once in trance, suggestions can be made that will go deep into the mind.
Someone may be an excellent hypnotist and have the best of intentions, yet not know what you personally need. Only you know. Only that part of you that is below the conscious mind knows what you have been through and what you need to hear to heal the past.
This is why I recommend de-hypnosis. We need to be de-hypnotized from all the trauma we have known — from our creation until the present. Once all the trauma is gone, we are naturally restored to our innate peace of mind, joy and unconditional love.
When you are very relaxed, your own inner wisdom can show or tell you what you need to know to heal your life. It works every time. It is very efficient. It never harms.
Relinquishing judgment
These wise words are from A Course In Miracles, Manual for Teachers…
In order to judge anything rightly, one would have to be fully aware of an inconceivably wide range of things; past, present and to come. One would have to recognise in advance all the effects of his judgments on everyone and everything involved in them in any way. And one would have to be certain there is no distortion in his perception, so that his judgment would be wholly fair to everyone on whom it rests now and in the future. Who is in a position to do this? Who except in grandiose fantasies would claim this for himself?
Remember how many times you thought you knew all the “facts” you needed for judgment, and how wrong you were? Is there anyone who has not had this experience? Would you know how many times you merely thought you were right, without ever realising you were wrong? Why would you choose such an arbitrary basis for decision-making? Wisdom is not judgement; it is the relinquishment of judgment. Make then but one more judgement. It is this: There is Someone with you Whose judgement is perfect. He does know all the facts; past, present and to come. He does know all the effects of His judgement on everyone and everything involved in any way. And He is wholly fair to everyone, for there is no distortion in His perception.
Therefore lay judgement down, not with regret but with a sigh of gratitude. Now are you free of a burden so great that you could merely stagger and fall down beneath it. And it was all illusion. Nothing more. Now can the teacher of God rise up unburdened, and walk lightly on. Yet it is not only this that is his benefit. His sense of care is gone, for he has none. He has given it away, along with judgment. He gave himself to Him Whose judgement he has chosen now to trust, instead of his own. Now he makes no mistakes. His Guide is sure. And where he came to judge, he comes to bless. Where now he laughs, he used to come to weep.
It is not difficult to relinquish judgment. But it is difficult indeed to try to keep it. The teacher of God lays it down happily the instant he recognises its cost. All of the ugliness he sees about him is its outcome. All of the pain he looks upon is its result. All of the loneliness and sense of loss; of passing time and growing hopelessness; of sickening despair and fear of death; all these have come of it. And now he knows that these things need not be. Not one is true. For he has given up their cause, and they, which never were but the effects of his mistaken choice, have fallen from him. Teacher of God, this step will bring you peace. Can it be difficult to want but this?
A place of feeling good
Don’t do anything that
you don’t really want to do.
Keep yourself in a place of feeling good.
Reach for the thought that feels better —
and watch what happens.
Abraham*
According to Abraham-Hicks, it is in the place of “feeling good” where grace occurs. A Course In Miracles would say that we have only two emotions: love and fear — and that love would be the place of “feeling good” and fear would be feeling less than love, anything less than comfortable.
“Pain is inevitable but suffering is optional.”
To have a human body means you will encounter pain — you will stub your toe or bump your head or experience any number of things that distract you from feeling good. But to dwell on the pain and remain in the pain, to bring yourself back to the pain over and over again in your mind is abuse, self-abuse. And it is obvious that we all want to feel good.
The ultimate in mental gymnastics is that masochists are masochistic because they claim they feel good when they hurt — “It hurts so good.” Not really. They are hoping for a breakthrough, a release, a transcendence from pain into love.
So now we can decide — coming back to the quote at the top of this post — to not do those things we don’t want to do or to not feel the feelings we don’t like to feel. Knowing we have an option, we may become determined to learn to release, let go, feel good in any circumstance. We learn to surf the waves of emotion, to walk on water, so to speak.
Imagine the implication for our world. Nobody would be following in the footsteps of Job… yet everyone would be helpful, because that is the nature of love. The world as we know it would change in a twinkling.
The importance of reclaiming the feeling that feels good jives with everything I’ve learned and have personally experienced. A Course In Miracles calls it love or forgiveness or releasing fear, Dr. Hew Len of ho’oponopono calls it cleaning. He makes it clear that cleaning is an ongoing activity. Mary Baker Eddy says, “God is Love… God is the work of eternity, and demands absolute consecration of thought, energy, and desire.” Our real job, our real work, is to reclaim our fundamental nature, which is pure, unconditional love.
Observing the judgmental voice between the ears, clearing, releasing, letting it go… getting back to “zero” or “neutral” or “feeling good”… that is our work and that is our fate, because since only love truly exists forever, our return to it is inevitable. Knowledge is the “know how” of how to go directly to the love that we are.
*From the workshop in Boston, MA on Sunday, October 10th, 1999 #563. This quote and much more at Abraham-Hicks Publications
FREE, simple, effective healing tools for PTSD that anyone can use successfully…
“All healing is essentially the release from fear. ”
– ACIM
“Fear and sickness are identical.”
– Mary Baker Eddy
Some say that healing is difficult, or even impossible. Nothing could be further from the truth. Healing is simple, easy and fun. Healing is always certain… when you know how. The simple tools listed below, can help you reclaim your mental clarity, physical health, happiness, and peace of mind.
Anyone can learn and use the tools below. Children love them and benefit from them. If you want help, get stuck or feel a problem is too big to tackle alone, use the Contact tab and fill out the form. We will get back with you as soon as we can.
You need not master every method. Find the ones that appeal to you and use them. I always go for the simplest, most direct route to release.
We recommend the methods below because of their simplicity, efficiency and efficacy They have been tried and tested. They work! Some of them provide almost immediate relief.
We also recommend them because the price is right — they are free — unless you opt to buy a product, such as a book or CD, take a class or attend an event. We do not profit financially from any of these products, but we have used them all and appreciate them all:
- Emergency measures for PTSD
- Lester Levenson, The Release Technique and The Sedona Method
- Re-evaluation Co-counseling (RC)
- Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT) – tapping
- Ho’oponopono
- Byron Katie “The Work” – 4 simple questions
- Focusing from Eugene Gendlin
- Mood (Cognitive) Therapy
- Healing ABC 123
Other helpful posts are
- Love & Fear,
- No words, just a handle
- You are Only as Sick as Your Secrets
- Your spiritual practice – coming soon!
Tell your friends, especially vets suffering from PTSD about these helpful techniques. Tell them about this blog. We understand fear and know how to release it.
We support you to release the fear that is causing you distress. Contact us for coaching.
We wish you a pain-free body, mind and spirit. Thank you for your kind and generous support!